To launch the new exhibition “Branding Creativity,” a potpourri of art, theater, music and food too ample for a single location is being organized. Consequently, the self-styled art jamboree will take place on Friday, Jan. 24, as a sort of cultural pub-crawl.
The first stop is UW-Parkside Galleries where, from 5-8 p.m. the exhibition will be unveiled. Twenty regional artists have utilized well-known brands, both local and international, as their material and subject. For example, the chance meeting of a PBR can and a hole puncher results in sequined shoes of a familiar sheen and color scheme. And VW’s iconic hood ornament is repurposed as a belt buckle that suggestively draws the eye to the wearer’s undercarriage.
From 8-11 p.m. the event moves to the Racine Art Museum for a reception. Here ice sculpting, spontaneous theatrical happenings and live music will compensate for the art left behind. The appetizers and cash bar, however, change locations with the attendees. Like the appetizers, admission to both events is complimentary.
Four new exhibitions
Haggerty Art Museum
530 N. 13th St.
With the new semester, so too arrives a new batch of art at Marquette University’s elegant Haggerty Art Museum. The new works are united in their focus on consumerism. Photographer Brian Ulrich’s “Copia—Retail, Thrift, and Dark Stores, 2001-2011” contrasts the plenteousness of mass-produced products with the barrenness of folded businesses. “Between Critique and Absorption” compiles the work of six contemporary artists casting light on the inconspicuous coordination supporting insatiable consumption. Two more suites courtesy of the Chipstone Foundation, Wisconsin’s foundation for the decorative arts, round out the show. The art is on display until May 18 and admission is free daily.
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“Collaborative Design: Great Minds Think Together”
Union Art Gallery
2200 E. Kenwood Blvd.
UW-Milwaukee’s Union Art Gallery celebrates artists making a difference around Milwaukee with this exhibition. With collaborators including a photographer, a storyteller, UWM’s Engineers without Borders, Marquette’s HEIR Lab Robotics and MIAD’s Compassion Project, the art is as interdisciplinary as it gets. The show proves that if great minds don’t always think alike, the final product is richer for the different perspectives’ unique contributions. Opens Friday, Jan. 24, from 5-8 p.m.; at 7 p.m. a handful of the artists will hold a Q&A session.
